The Future of Consumerist

Over the last twelve years, Consumerist has been a steadfast proponent and voice on behalf of consumers, from exposing shady practices by secretive cable companies to pushing for action against dodgy payday lenders. Now, we’re joining forces with Consumer Reports, our parent organization, to cultivate the next generation of consumer advocacy.

Stay tuned as Consumerist’s current and future content finds its home as a part of the Consumer Reports brand. In the meantime, you can access existing Consumerist content below, and we encourage you to visit Consumer Reports to read the latest consumer news.

windows

With the exception of the Xbox, Microsoft has been on a string of high-profile failures like Zune, Windows Phone, and Surface tablets. But its latest cock-up, the much-reviled Windows 8 operating system may have been the final straw for lots of Windows-based PC users, at least according to those who make the computers. [More]

Yesterday, we shared the story of Nick, a university information technology professional who bought a computer for a new employee that already had Windows 8 on it, tried to downgrade to Windows 7, and was told that doing so would void his warranty. While the person at Enterprise support he spoke to may have said this, it is not, strictly speaking, true. That’s great to hear. The bad news, of course, is that someone told Nick this in the first place. An ordinary customer who doesn’t work in IT would be completely confused at this point. [More]

If you desperately need a copy of Windows Vista, it seems that your local Walmart is the place to go. That’s what the brave retail archeologists/Consumerist readers known as the Raiders of the Lost Walmart have learned as their excavations continue. [More]

Microsoft went years without making too big of a stir with updates to its Windows operating system, but with only days left to the unleashing of Windows 8 upon the world, the early word is that some people will not be please with all the changes. [More]

The Raiders of the Lost Walmart have been busy since April, finding the oldest and obsoletest items on the shelves at Walmart. No old cameras this time, but plenty of (now) free games, old memory, and not-quite-vintage action figures. Almost as if our readers are experts in that sort of thing.[More]

Smartphones that use the Microsoft’s Windows Phone operating system haven’t exactly made a dent in the market share enjoyed by iPhone and Android devices. And yet, Microsoft has refused to throw in the towel, hoping to entice new users with today’s introduction of Windows Phone 8. Alas, if you’re one of the few people who have been holding on to your Windows Phone for when the new OS came out, you’re out of luck. [More]

On the cusp of a big Apple event today where a new iPhone is expected to be announced, fake emails are going around purporting to give details of “the new Apple iPhone5GS,” featuring a see-through keyboard. Clicking on the links leads to a malware-laced website that targets PCs. Here’s the email and what to look out for. [More]

When the hard drive of Joseph’s Samsung laptop began to make clicking noises, he thought it would be simple enough to make a backup image of his hard drive, install a shiny new solid-state drive, and put the backed-up image on his new drive. This didn’t work, and he’s stuck without Windows on his drive. Now he yearns for those long-ago days when computer manufacturers actually shipped copies of the software installed on computers with those computers. [More]

A man decided to try installing every single major upgrade version of Windows in consecutive order just to see what would happen, and made a video documenting the amazing results. Quite a dose of nostalgia. I like how the attention to seeing how the color scheme preferences are maintained or not maintained across installs is a major point of focus. [More]

Juan writes that his granddaughter has a cute little digital picture frame marketed to children. He tried to hook it up to his computer to load some pictures on it for her, and couldn’t get it to cooperate with his computer. Juan tried to connect the picture frame using both Windows 7 and Vista, both of which the product’s marketing materials claim are compatible operating systems. Only…not so much. “Sometimes the program works and sometimes it doesn’t,” an employee helpfully told Juan after asking if he has a Windows XP system lying around. [More]

We have no idea who first posted this picture, but
just to set the record straight, the sign is using a bilingual pun
on the Japanese word è²§ä¹ (binbo) which can be translated as
“poor.” It’s apparently promoting a store that sells cheap PCs and
computer parts, though we do kind of like the sound of “binbows,”
and may just start using that around the office when we want to
refer to Michaelsoft’s flagship product. Or other products that are
deemed worthy of such an appellation.

Windows: pressing the F1 key might make your computer go boom. A security exploit deployed by certain malicious websites hides in the Windows help files and could get launched if you press the F1 button. It will only happen, if the following is true: [More]

If you hate buying a new PC that’s riddled with bloatware, you may want to pay a Microsoft Store a visit on your next computer shopping trip. They plan on selling PCs free of any third-party trial applications, reports OhGizmo.

Digital software downloads! Fast. Convenient. But sometimes, it can’t compare with having a physical disc and a printed product key sitting in front of you. That’s what Daniel’s roommate learned when he tried to download Windows 7 from Digital River.